Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

The critically endangered wild Bactrian camel ( Camelus ferus ) is so rare and lives in such remote areas that it was only recognized (after a few years of scientific debate) as its own species in 2008, decades after China started using one of its few habitats, the the Lop Nur Desert, to test nuclear bombs. Amazingly, this two-humped camel appears to be no worse for wear following the tests, but now more humans are entering those once-remote areas. With hunting, mineral mining and other threats on the rise, the camel's numbers have dropped 50 percent in the past 25 years to just 1,000 animals in two distinct populations.

NEW YORK – Even by this city's standards, the Garment District is an imposing place to ride a bike. A never-ending parade of delivery trucks rumbles along 8th Avenue between 34th and 42nd streets, leaving a wake of gritty exhaust for cyclists to feel, smell and breathe

Used to be, if parents wanted to know what their kids were up to, they’d just rummage through their dresser drawers. But now parents take advantage of social network spying solutions. [More]

The single biggest factor, by far, in reducing the rate of death among children younger than five is greater education for women. In all countries worldwide, whether females increase schooling from 10 years to 11, say, or two years to three, infant mortality declines , according to a recent study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington

(Adds governor's letter to company) By Emilie Ritter [More]

Claims about the positive effects of debt warrant a closer look

Here's a great video primer on how auroras form, from Per Byhring and the physics department at the University of Oslo. With wonderful graphics, the nearly five-minute-long video details the origin of the solar storms that trigger the Northern and Southern lights

By Ewen Callaway of Nature magazine A controversial new study is questioning the oft-repeated connection between the consumption of too much salt and the development of cardiovascular disease.

By Sid Perkins of Nature magazine Evidence of historical irregularities in the motions of both the Indian and African tectonic plates bolsters the contention that plumes of hot rock rising from deep within Earth's mantle can drive the planet's tectonic plates. About 68 million years ago, the tectonic plate that includes the Indian subcontinent--which, at that time, had yet to slam into southern Asia--lay northeast of Madagascar and was moving north-eastward at a tectonically typical few centimeters per year. [More]

Deep in the Silurian seas, some 420 million years ago, a strange structure had just emerged in the bodies of many new vertebrates. Some fish began developing a defined upper and lower jaw that allowed them to devour large and hard-shelled organisms

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council will debate climate change for the second time in four years, its current chair announced yesterday. The July 20 discussion, led by the German government, will be a repeat of a 2007 attempt by the United Kingdom to put climate change on the council's agenda

What does a bookworm have in common with a black-tufted marmoset? They both like a little quiet. Or so say scientists in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters

A pilot episode of It Ain't Rocket Science , an original, family-friendly television show that Time Warner Cable has created as part of its Connect a Million Minds venture, aired June 24 on NY1. The program shares information about STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) topics, aiming to cultivate a love of science in children through informational segments and interviews with experts--such as Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina. [More]

BOSTON – The world has seen seven global cholera outbreaks since 1817, and the current one seems to have come to stay. Rising temperatures and a stubbornly persistent, toxic bacteria strain appear to have given the disease the upper hand. Public health officials are working on vaccines, struggling to improve sanitation in impoverished nations and grasping for ways to predict the outbreaks